Without doubt, Smith, Gosnold, Newton, and some others were possessed with the prevailing spirit of adventure, the incentive of rivalry, and a high ambition for the glory and honour of England. Not so, alas, George Percy, to whom England had been a stern mother indeed; not so Robert Hunt, whose heart burned with the spirit of the Christian missionary, and (if need be) of the Christian martyr as well; not so the spendthrift "gentlemen" who sought the "pearle and gold" promised by the poet; nor the boy who frankly confessed that he had run away "being in displeasure of my friends." The company seems to have been gathered at haphazard--not at all with regard to its fitness, but simply by accepting the few who were willing to brave the dangers of life among the savages. Of the Indian they had learned enough to fear him. He had early dropped his "gentle and loving" mask, and revealed himself in his true colours. "An Englishman was his natural enemy to be slain wherever seen,"--shot to death with arrows if distant, and clubbed by wooden swords if nearer at hand; ambushed and trapped, deceived and betrayed, whenever circumstances forbade open warfare. And yet there was no military preparation for this expedition. Its authors affected to be inspired solely by zeal for the conversion of the Indian to Christianity, and their messengers were men of peace. Whatever their station, whatever their motives, these were the men ever to be held by us in grateful remembrance. They made many mistakes, of which we learn from their own confessions and criticisms of each other; but the sacrifices and sufferings awaiting them were beyond all precedent. They "broke the way with tears which many followed with a song." The sailing of the ships awakened so little interest in England that the event is hardly noticed in history. All England was shaken to its foundations by the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, and punishment of the conspirators. That three little vessels were to depart, as many had departed before, to seek a footing in America, was, by comparison with the troubles at home, of small consequence. The poet Drayton, however, composed a lyric in honour of the occasion, which I commend to the indulgence of my reader. It is not for me to criticise an Elizabethan poet or deny him space on my pages! "You brave heroique minds Worthie your Countries' name That honour still pursue, Go and subdue; Whilst Loyt'ring hinds Lurke here at home with shame. "Britons, you stay too long! Quickly aboard bestow you, And with a merry gale Swell your stretch'd sail With vows as strong As the winds that blow you. "And cheerfully at sea Success you will intice, To get the pearle and gold, And ours to hold Virginia, Earth's only paradise.